Congressman Collins pushes for flexibility with sequester cuts

Press release

Congressman
Chris Collins, NY-27, says the federal sequester is unfairly
targeting the military, but he is hoping military leadership will
have greater control over how to make cuts. Collins made the case for
proposed legislation that would give department and agency heads more
flexibility over sequester cuts Friday afternoon at the Niagara Falls
Air Reserve Station.

Collins
has signed on as a co-sponsor of Sequestration Flexibility Act, which
provides department leadership discretion to transfer funds from the
spending accounts they control. Under the bill, each agency will
still be required to meet the automatic spending reduction levels
under the sequestration order and the Budget Control Act, but agency
and department heads will have wider flexibility in reaching their
new funding levels under the law.

"The
House will be taking action next week to give departments the
flexibility they need to prioritize spending cuts," said Collins.
"Our military leadership is asking for and needs to receive the
discretion necessary to make appropriate cuts without impacting
military readiness. This flexibility will help the Defense Department
prioritize the C-130 flight simulator for the NFARS."

"The
sequester cuts impacting the Niagara Falls Air Reserve Station and
other government operations are arbitrary and across-the-board,"
Collins added. "Most disturbing, they are impacting important
personnel and the services Americans rely on every day. I believe
this approach was intentional so the administration could make the
case for another round of tax increases. But the public is seeing
through these scare tactics."

Collins
said the House has twice passed legislation that would have replaced
President Obama's sequester with common sense reductions and
reforms, aimed at cutting government bureaucracy and waste. The first
of those bills was passed almost 300 days ago, but neither measure
was addressed by the president or the Senate.

"I
think the residents of New York's 27th Congressional
District find it inconceivable that the federal government is going
to furlough men and women here at the Air Reserve Station or TSA and
border patrol agents, or raise taxes before looking inward and
cutting the millions of dollars of waste that can be found around
every corner," he said.

Examples
of what Collins considers wasteful federal spending include:

•The
EPA doling out $100 million worth of grants to foreign countries,
including China, over the past decade;

•The
IRS running a TV studio at a cost of $4 million a year;

•The
National Science Foundation paying senior citizens $1.2 million to
video games so scientists could study the impact on their brain;

•The
FAA sending more than 18,000 of its employees to conferences
throughout the country, costing taxpayers $8 million over the past
seven years; and

•The
U.S. Agency for International Development using a $27 million grant
to promote Moroccan pottery classes.

"Department
heads should have the authority to cut this kind of waste so they can
maintain vital services to the American people, and the federal
government should have had the sense to not spend American's
hard-earned tax dollars this way in the first place," Collins said.
"Washington must do better, because the American people deserve
better."